Utilising ICBF Reports

By Mícheál Kelly, B&T Drystock Advisor, Teagasc Galway/Clare

One of the mandatory requirements of the new suckler carbon efficiency programme (SCEP) is that participants must weigh 80% of eligible animals born on the holding i.e. calves born between the 1^st of July 2022 and June 30^th 2023. This action has been completed by participating farmers over recent months with a big push seen just before the deadline of October 31^st. Many farmers will be happy to have ticked the box for this action to secure payment, however, for many others the payment is just an added bonus to the valuable information gathered. 

Once the cow and calf pairings weights are recorded, the weaning performance report can be generated. This gives the farmer a list of their top performing males and female calves and for contrast it also lists the worst performing males and female calves. An add-on to this is that it also identifies the best and worst performing cows in the herd in terms of weaning efficiency by virtue of comparing the calves’ 200 day weaning weight to their mother’s liveweight.

Herds that were previously in the BEEP (Beef Environmental Efficiency Programme) schemes now have a bank of data through weighing their cow/calf pairs each year that can be used to identify problem cows in the herd. Cows that are consistently in the bottom 5 performing cows in the herd can be identified for culling. Where a cows weaning efficiency is low it is an indication that the cow is putting more energy into her own maintenance than her calves’. For example, a cow may have a heavy liveweight so she is costing the farmer more to maintain but she could be producing a poor calf with a low growth rate due to lower milk production.

Another very useful report on ICBF that can help in the selection of cows for culling within the herd is the beef calving report. This report gives all the details of the previous calving period and ranks each farm on a national scale with regard to each trait. The last page of the report is one of the most important of all however. It is an action list which lists cows that have areas for attention. It highlights cows that have a calving interval of over 390 days, cows not calved in the last 390 days, recycled cows and cows that had a calving score of 3 or 4 at their last calving i.e. a difficult calving. There will be numerous variables which effect each of these issues but seeing these cows shortlisted for attention can help us to look differently at them. We all know these cows within our herd and may have our own reasons for keeping them but where they are consistently found to be lacking in terms of fertility or calving issues, decisions need to be made on their future in the herd. A cow that is not producing a calf every year, is consistently hard calving, or calves out of sync with the rest of the herd is not going to increase farm profits but will indeed increase the labour demand on the farm.

Another useful report for suckler farmers is the 5 year trend report. It ranks each individual’s herd nationally in terms of cow replacement index, replacement index of first calvers, herd calving interval, calves per cow per year, heifers calved between 22-26 months and the farms’ six week spring calving rate. It is a very visual report that shows whether a farm has improved or disimproved on a trait over the previous five years.

All of this information is readily available and can be an effective tool in the decision making process on farm. On the wet winter days or quiet nights going forward, it is no harm for each farmer to research how their own farm is performing and hopefully the information seen will make the decision making process for the 2024 breeding season more streamlined. Although it is a good while off yet, being prepared with a plan in place will save time next spring.